CHAPTER IV 



WHAT MAKES MAN GO 



One of childhood's earliest questions, sug- 

 gested by the first mechanical toy, is "What makes 

 it go?" Later the same query is applied to his 

 own body. We are still asking "What makes us 

 go?" Nearly every magazine has a patented 

 food preparation that guarantees to make man go 

 better than do ordinary foods. There is but one 

 method of approaching this problem and that is 

 through a study of the relation of energy to hfe 

 processes. What are our resources? Under what 

 limitations and regulations do we move? 



We do not know when man first noted that heat 

 was produced in living things. Whenever it may 

 have been, there was no satisfactory explanation 

 of this fact until the chemical substance oxygen 

 was discovered. It was the French scientist, La- 

 voisier, who pointed out that the use of oxygen in 

 respiration resulting in the production of heat, was 

 a chemical process. His suggestion, made in 

 1792, marks the beginning of our knowledge of 

 what makes the body go. 



The body goes because it is furnished with 



51 



